Miami's TOP 25 Project highlighted in Change magazine

Miami University's TOP 25 Project receives national attention with an article appearing in the September/October 2011 issue of Change magazine. Written by Miami President David Hodge and project team leaders, the article highlights the transformation of Miami's teaching and learning cultures.

The article, “Institutionalizing Large Scale Curricular Change: The TOP 25 Project at Miami University,” explains the initiative that began in 2007 to generate engaged learning across the curriculum based on the urgency of producing graduates who are ready to face the challenges and opportunities of a global society; and who can solve real-world problems ethically and through strong critical-thinking skills.

“We targeted the transformation for our largest-total-enrollment, lower-level courses in order to change the ‘habits of mind’ of our students at the earliest possible moment in their studies,” wrote the article’s authors. “Faculty ownership of the redesigns have led to a variety of models, all of which focus on moving low-level learning outside the classroom in order to use class time to better engage students in activities that promote deep learning and increase both student effort and its effectiveness.”

The article describes Miami’s process used to implement the changes, the types of transformations that were implemented, the challenges faced, encouraging outcomes and next steps.

Authors of the article are: President Hodge; Marjorie Keeshan Nadler, professor of communication, team leader for the COM 135 class TOP 25 redesign and a faculty associate in the Center for Enhancement of Learning, Teaching and University Assessment (CELTUA); Cecilia Shore, professor of psychology and director of CELTUA; and Beverley Taylor, professor of physics, faculty associate in CELTUA and director of the TOP 25 Project.